Believe in Me
by F.A.Jackson
Summary: Rapunzel has only left her tower twice in her life. The second time she escapes, Rapunzel sees Jack rise out of the ice. After a decade of being ignored, Jack returns to that same lake and eventually finds Rapunzel, now 16 years old. Can she help him find the meaning behind his life? Can he change the way she sees the world? Based on E.T. by xxbabyhannah. Prequel to Alone Again.
1. Out of the Ice

**Author's Note: If you spot any errors, please tell me. I'd like for my stories to be perfect and this one means a lot to me. Thank you. I also apologize for the short length. The second chapter will be better. **

Out of the Ice

Rapunzel's mind could not drift off into the slumber of sleep. Restlessly, she tossed and turned underneath her sheets. For the second time in a row, her mother had not returned home to her, a first in almost 3 years. She gave up at the attempt of sleep and ran down to the only window that looked out at the outside world. How far could she go this time?

The night was quiet. Very little ever changed in her small corner of the forest, even less changed in her home. What was the outside world like? Her mother had told her the stories of course: The ruffians that tore people apart, the bandits that stole whatever seemed even remotely valuable, cannibals with pointy teeth, and even the plague. The outside world sounded like a horrible place, but none of that ever touched her corner of the forest.

It was the middle of the night and the frozen air was sweeping all around her. She hesitated on her sill for a moment. Surely all the bandits and cannibals were asleep at this time. She ran down the steps of the tower, her hair trailing along behind her. The grass was lush underneath her feet; the water sparkled behind her tower. Nothing had changed over the past three years, but everything looked different at the bottom of her tower. Everything felt different. She felt incredibly cheerful, and happy, and even though she did not know it at the time, free.

She hurried along to the lake. It was a strange lake. It never snowed in the Land of the Sun. Rapunzel had tested ice in the winters of her tower, and it always melted when it was warm enough, but this lake didn't. The last time she had been there, it was the middle of summer, and it was still perfectly frozen over. Rapunzel sat on a log and watched the moon reflected in the ice. Her feet weren't long enough to touch the ice yet but it almost seemed to sparkle.

_Jack Frost,_

Rapunzel turned around at the sound but she saw no one. Her heart started race, the earth underneath her moved. The ice in the lake began to melt, the moon shook, and ice began to float into the air. Something was rising from the ice, a human man dressed like a shepherd and holding a staff in his right hand. He landed on the ice gently, impossibly so, almost like magic. He looked at himself, amazed. That was when he noticed the young Rapunzel standing a few feet away. Frightened, she turned and ran, but she couldn't get very far before slipping and falling hard onto the ice.

"Wait! Please!" He called to her with a voice that was surprisingly warm. She paused on the ice for just a moment to turn and look at him. He was still standing on the ice, his hand was reaching out to her. He didn't have any fangs. In fact, his teeth were remarkably straight and sparkled like the ice he came from.

Very slowly, he began to walk toward her, never once slipping on the ice. "I…My name is Jack Frost. Can you….tell me where I am?" He paused beside her, and extended his hand to pick her up. The moment she reached out for it, ice sprouted from his staff and spread underneath them.

She quickly began to back away again. Jack did the same, shocked at what he could do, but he held off his shock for a moment to comfort the little girl shivering from cold and fear. He reached out for her again. This time, he stood still and bent down slightly so that she could look into his eyes. "It's okay. You're going to be alright. I promise. You have to believe me."

Rapunzel tried to stop shaking but she couldn't. The only thing she could do was look in his eyes and believe in his words. He didn't look like he had meant to hurt her. It could've been an accident. Maybe he didn't mean to make it happen. "Jack Frost," she said quietly.

He smiled slightly, which calmed her nerves a bit and she tried to stand up again.

"Rapunzel!" They both turned to the voice. Mother Gothel was staring at her daughter with a look of pure rage on her face. "What are you doing here?! I told you to never to leave the tower! What if someone found you?!" Without waiting for an answer to any of her questions, she picked up Rapunzel in her arms and hurriedly ran away.

Jack watched the pair go with a slight pang of disappointment. He walked around the ice, testing it. He did a few spins, and ice sprouted behind him. He laughed at the miraculous sight. He took his staff and knocked it against a nearby tree. It froze with contact. He started jumping up, unable to contain his excitement. That was when he realized he didn't come down. The wind was blowing him into the air and he was flying over the clouds. He could fly. He could freaking fly! Whatever his staff touched froze, and he could freaking fly!

In the air, his glance landed on a tower with a waterfall behind it. Unexpectedly, the wind started to send him thousands of miles away before causing him to plummet to the ground and land on a small shack fair away but it didn't hurt. The 3-story drop didn't pain him at all. It was amazing. He rushed to the nearest village, giggling as ice formed in his trail. Everyone was walking around with a lantern and whispering quietly to each other.

"It might be worse tomorrow."

"The prices were raised again this morning. I have kids at home, this is becoming impossible."

"If it rises again, how am I supposed to put dinner on the table?"

Jack greeted everyone who passed by him but noticed that everyone walked by without any notice of him. They all seemed to be worried and caught up in their own affairs. He reached for the nearest pair walking by him, but again, they ignored him. He turned to someone else and tried again but there was no reaction. He walked over to a little boy, but the child walked right through him. Jack felt the air blow through him and the rest of the world continuing to turn without him, as if he didn't exist.

**Author's Note: Comments are appreciated. The video this is based on is called ****Jackfrost/Rapunzel - E.T. Go watch it, it's good. **


	2. Into the Tower

**Author's Note: I've got 4 chapters typed up already so I couldn't help but post another one. Can we just say that it's another week and my next chapter is due Febuary 23?**

Into the Tower

Ten years has passed since the day Jack emerged from the ice. The people had grown darker and unhappier all the time. Jack would see people turning in their sleep and crying after waking from a nightmare. During all that time, he had caused blizzards to freeze horses in their tracks, helped kids who were trapped in avalanches, and started thousands of snowball fights in villages all over the world. Not a single person could ever see him no matter what he did. Everyone just walked right through him.

Every night, he would look for the Man in the Moon. He would stare at the stars whether or not the moon was there and seek some sort of an answer. One night, after years of flying wherever the wind took him, he found himself staring down at the same lake he had come out of. The lake sat at the heart of the woods in the Land of the Sun. The trees were still covered in ice from the night where he froze them. Jack sank to his knees and screamed at the top of his lungs. He stared at the moon like he had done so many times and whispered the words that never stopped occurring in his mind.

"There's something I'm doing wrong. Can you just tell me what it is? Because I've tried everything but no one ever sees me. You put me here. The least you can do is tell me why."

He let his staff fall to the ground at his feet. The moment it touched the floor, ice flew from the crook and shot into the forest. Jack levitated into the air and followed the trail. It led him back to the tower that he had seen 10 years ago. Long, golden blonde hair was flowing from the only window in the tower. The hair was at least 40 feet long, and flowed to the very bottom of the tower. The girl he had seen so many years ago was watching him fly over the secret entrance to her corner of the woods.

Rapunzel watched as a man was flying toward her. She didn't know people could fly. Why couldn't see or her mother fly. She stared at him intently, feeling some kind of familiarity from his appearance. Her mind traveled back to that night 10 years ago. Back to a memory she had almost forgotten she had.

"Jack Frost," she whispered his name, but he could hear it from no matter how far away. She had said his name. **_She said his name_**. He slowly flew up to her window, unable to fully comprehend the fact that she had just said his name.

"That's my name…. You remembered my name! Can you….Can you see me?" She nodded, her mouth open in shock. "You can see me!" He shouted this and zoomed in circles around the room. She could see him. The thoughts kept repeating in his mind. After ten years, someone could finally see him. "Woohoo!" Rapunzel's eyes grew wide with fear and she quickly tried to shush him down. "Please! My mother is asleep! Please be quiet!"

After a few moments, Jack calmed down and floated onto her window sill to sit and look at her. "I remember you. When I first woke up in the lake, you were there. You were watching me. You were just a kid back then." Rapunzel nodded and looked to the stairway to her mother's room, afraid she might hear. "You don't have to worry. No one can see or hear me." Saying the words out loud cut him slightly and made everything that happened the past ten years real.

Rapunzel stared at the man before her, hardly daring to believe her eyes. "A long time ago, I told my mother I had seen an ice fairy at the lake. He told me his name was Jack Frost, but she told me it was just a dream. She told me that I hadn't sneaked outside and that everything was just a dream. How can you be real…?"

Jack laughed at her words. "I wouldn't say I look like a fairy. More like a devilishly handsome rogue?"

Rapunzel chuckled even though she was still shocked. "You don't look any different from that day. You haven't gotten any older at all. You are like a fairy. How did you find me here?" Jack took his staff and waved it in small circles over his head. Snow started to drift slowly from the ceiling, and a drop of it fell onto her hand. "My staff created a path of ice that led me here."

Rapunzel didn't seem to hear him. Snow was falling in small piles on her floor. There was enough snow for her to throw it over her head. There was enough to make at least 20 snowballs! She ran around the room flinging and kicking snow everywhere, giggling and screaming as she went. Her toes were frozen but she didn't care. She took some of the snow and made a small lizard out of it, smiling happily at her work. " Doesn't it look adorable?"

Jack watched her as she went and couldn't help but smirk. He had never seen someone so happy at the sight of snow. She looked adorable, kicking it at the ceiling and just rolling around as if he wasn't there. "It's almost as if you've never played with snow before." Her smile disappeared at his words, and she immediately fell silent. Jack looked at her with concern. "Have-"

"Rapunzel?! What's with all that noise up there? It's the middle of the night dear." Rapunzel froze at the voice. Her hand reached for Jack but went right through him. Jack didn't seem surprised, but she could see the frown forming on his lips. She pulled back, frightened and completely at a loss of what to do. She pulled herself together with enough time to run back to her room and feign sleep. She could hear her mother on the other side. "Rapun—Is this snow? How could there be this much snow in the tower? It's the middle of autumn, and it isn't even snowing outside. It doesn't snow around here, and there's barely any wind tonight." Gothel walked into Rapunzel's room to find her sleeping soundly in her bed. Gothel shook her head and walked back to her own bedchambers.

After Rapunzel was sure her mother was gone, she sat up and ran back to the other room where Jack was still sitting on the window sill, his eyes staring at his hands. A sad expression on his face. Rapunzel's voice shook, "My hand went right through you, she didn't see you… How is that possible?"

"I told you. For the past ten years, no one has ever been able to see me. It was almost like I didn't exist. No one could touch me either. You're the first person I've ever met who could see me." He pointed his staff at her. At the very top, where it curved into an arc, sat the lizard she had made. She took the lizard from his staff and held it in her hands. Jack blew on it, and the lizard immediately solidified, turning into an ice sculpture. His cold breath hit her skin, and she shivered. Jack took notice and backed away from her. "It's getting late. You should sleep, and I should go." He got off her sill and turned to fly off.

"Wait!" Rapunzel half-whispered half-shouted. She put the ice sculpture on her desk before taking a few candles and matches from her room and hurrying back him. "I made them. I have a lot, take a few as a thank you for spending time with me tonight. You can use the matches to light them." Jack put them in a pouch underneath his cloak before turning back to her.

"Can I…Can I come back to see you again?" Rapunzel nodded happily and watched him fly off into the night before returning to her room, with dream full of snow.

Jack didn't fly very far, just to the lake where they had met. He took out one of her candles and lit it at his feet. Fire and ice, sun and moon. They looked nice together, even if they were complete opposites. Jack smiled to himself, and looked at the Man in the Moon again.

"She's the only one that can she me, but her eyes glow like the sun. Is this the answer I was waiting for? After a decade, you decided to bring me back to where I began." Jack sighed and closed his eyes. "What are you trying to tell me?"

Rapunzel woke up bright and early at 7:00 AM the next morning. There wasn't a single drop of snow in the tower. Her smile fell from her face. Perhaps it was a dream after all. She went about the tower doing her chores and trying to fill up her day with as much as possible. Soon, she could hear her mother calling for her as she always did in the early evenings.

"Rapunzel! Let down your hair!" She rushed to the window and pulled her mother up using her golden locks like a rope.

"Welcome home, mother", she was breathing heavily. Exhausted from pulling a fully-grown woman into her tower.

"Oh thank you, darling. I was feeling absolutely exhausted after getting rid of all that snow this morning."

Rapunzel's eyes shot up. "Snow?! There was snow in the tower?!"

"Oh, I know dear. I had the same reaction when I saw this morning. How on earth so much snow had landed inside the tower is beyond me." Gothel walked over to the mirror and began smoothing out her hair, completely ignoring the shocked look on Rapunzel's face.

"He's real. That wasn't a dream. He came in here yesterday and made it snow in the tower." Rapunzel whispered to herself. Her mother whipped her head around to scold her daughter. "You know how I hate the mumbling Rapunzel. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah. It's so annoying. Now say what you want to say clearly."

"Oh, it's nothing mother. Don't worry about it."

The rest of the afternoon passed by in a blur. She did not taste the hazelnut soup her mother constantly made, nor did she pay attention when her mother was singing while combing her hair. Finally, night fell and her mother ushered her to bed. Rapunzel could not sleep and her gaze fell on the ice sculpture that Jack had made the night before. She hadn't noticed it in the morning because of the thought of snow, but she looked at it closely now. It looked beautiful, and sparkled in the moonlight.

"You have a knack for the arts." Jack was leaning on her doorframe, a small smile on his face. "I was looking at your paintings downstairs. They're beautiful." Rapunzel's smile looked like it could rip her face in half. "You like my paintings? I have even more in here. Look! That one's my favorite." She pointed to a painting in the ceiling where a girl was dancing in a swirl of leaves.

Jack nodded his head appreciatively at her art. "What do your friends think of them?" Rapunzel gave a sad chuckle at his question. "I uh…I don't have friends." Jack's head whipped around to look at her. "Why not?" Rapunzel stayed silent, unable to answer his question. "It's complicated."

Jack watched her for several moments in the pale moon's light. There weren't any windows, but some light floated in from the entrance of her room. "Well…You do now. I'm your friend, and I love your paintings." Rapunzel blushed and laughed at his words. "I read that friends don't always love what their friends do and stuff. They're supposed to be honest."

"I am honest." Jack responded. "Would I try to trick you?" Rapunzel laughed. "I wouldn't know. I just met you yesterday."

"No, you met me a long time ago at that lake. If your mom hadn't dragged you away, we might've been friends a long time ago." His voice seemed to radiate menace but she didn't notice. "You said she doesn't see you right? I wonder what she thought I was doing that day."

"What do you mean?"

"I never leave—" Rapunzel caught herself. She was telling him too much. Was this what happened when you made friends? "Never mind."

Jack noticed the hesitation and fear in her face. "You don't trust me." He saw this coming of course. She had only started talking to him yesterday, and knew nearly nothing about him.

Rapunzel quickly shook her head, as if trying to get rid of his notion. "That's not it. I've just never had someone to talk to before. Me and my mother are close but she never hears what I have to say. I've always been taught that the outside world was a scary place and that there isn't anyone to be trusted. I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to do."

Jack sighed. "I see. You know, the world outside is a pretty special place. There's a lot of people out there, but I've seen what they're like. They all have their own fears, their own lives. Each person is like another world. Sure, a new world might be scary but you'll learn a lot. Here, follow me." He flew outside her room and back to the main room. There was a closed window on his left. Frost appeared on the window. He drew the crest for the Land of the Sun. "Just because it's different from what you're used to doesn't mean you can't get to know it."

Rapunzel touched the picture. She whispered, "I'd like to get to know you." Jack's face flushed red, something that had never happened before. "It's getting late, I need to get out of here." Rapunzel reached for him to try and grab a hold of his cloak but her hand passed right through him. "Jack felt the rush of air passing through him like it had done so many times before. He sighed.

Rapunzel withdrew her hand but couldn't help herself from trying to keep him to stay. "Do you…Could you stay with me?"

"Wait. What?!" Jack looked at her with wide, shocked eyes. She couldn't possibly be asking him to sleep with her. That would be a giant leap from not trusting him at all. He wouldn't mind, of course. She was pretty cute, even if she did have fifty feet of hair.

"Stay here with me, I mean, if you want..." Rapunzel mumbled that last part. She couldn't understand why the suggestion was so ridiculous to him. It had hurt her feelings that he didn't want to spend time with her.

"Uh…Okay." Jack flew up to her room and laid on her bed. It was surprisingly comfortable. Rapunzel hurriedly ran after him, staring at him lying on her sheets.

"What are you doing?" Rapunzel asked him, a glare on her face.

"Lying on your bed. Aren't we going to sleep?" He smirked as the words came out of his mouth. He hadn't meant for it to happen, but the notion just seemed too ridiculous for him to keep a straight face.

Rapunzel finally realized what he had been thinking. Her look of disgust was enough of an answer for him too. "What?! That's not what I meant! I—gah!" Rapunzel threw up her hands in frustration.

Jack's lop-sided smile surfaced again, "Oh? Then what did you have in mind?"

Rapunzel rushed over to her bed and grabbed as many pillows as she could, flinging them in his direction. To her pleasant surprise, they made contact. Jack laughed at her attempts to hurt him. He dodged all of them easily. One of them hit the lizard she had made the night before and it fell off the table. Both Jack and Rapunzel dived for the fallen sculpture. It landed in Jack's hand, and he smiled at the accomplishment.

That was when he noticed Rapunzel's face next to his. They were ridiculously close after simultaneously diving for the sculpture. His lips were right next to her nose, and their eyes met in the darkness. She immediately got up and took the lizard from him. "Um….Thanks for saving Pascal."

Jack took a moment to recover but his smile was back in seconds, "Pascal?"

She drew herself up to her full height and looked defiantly back at Jack, "What's wrong with Pascal? It's a great name."

Jack stifled a chuckle and pointed at the ice, "Sure it is, but we're talking about a statue." Jack just laughed at her silent defiance. "Okay, so seriously, what did you have in mind?"

Rapunzel put the sculpture back down on her dresser, "I was hoping we could just talk. I wanted to hear about the world outside, and I want to learn more about you."

Jack sat down at the foot of her bed. "Well, what do you want to know?"

Rapunzel tucked her hair behind her ear, "Let's start with an easy one. What do you like doing?"


	3. Snow Day

**Author's Note: Writing about them is addicting. I'm upgrading to twice a week. I can't stop. **

Snow Day

Many weeks passed like that. Jack would stay the night in Rapunzel's tower and they would talk until the afternoon sun peeked through the curtains and her mother would return home. Every night, they would talk about the most trivial of things. They would argue and fight, but it would never dampen the mood. They would end up laughing over Rapunzel's clumsiness or Jack would tell her a story of the things he had seen around the world. They would talk about many different things, but the two of them would never venture into the deep questions that they both knew she couldn't answer.

One winter evening, Jack sat on the window sill to watch Rapunzel and her mother attend to their evening chores. He was slightly bored, but he had started spending more and more time in Rapunzel's tower. In fact, he had started spending so much time there, that he had found it hard to leave in the afternoons. He didn't have anywhere to go. Nothing else in the world interested him as much as being in that tower with her.

The day before, Jack had flown to the neighboring villages where he had caused it to snow lightly. The people looked at it with shocked eyes and the children would play in it with a ferocity that he had never seen before, but the moment the morning sun hit the snow, it would all melt away. The most Jack could do was meddle in other people's affairs and make people slip and slide around. Life outside of the tower had gotten boring and stale.

"Rapunzel dear, wash the dishes," Gothel said. Jack mimicked her as she walked around, ordering Rapunzel to do one thing after another. Rapunzel shot him a look, but he just laughed and continued to walk around her mother. A cold breeze floated around Gothel's head. "Rapunzel dear, it's getting strangely cold in here. Get me my cloak, would you?"

"Yes mother!" Rapunzel put down her dishes and immediately ran to get her mother the shawl.

Jack couldn't help but ask,"Why do you listen to her so much? She treats you like a slave."

"She's not so bad. You just don't see it. She really loves me." Jack scoffed at her persistence. "She does!" Rapunzel laughed when she said it, but she meant her words. "You just don't know her like I do."

"Rapunzel! Who are you talking to?" Gothel rushed to her side.

Rapunzel tried to look as casual as possible when she answered, "No one. I'm just talking to myself."

Gothel let loose a light breath. This was not the first time Gothel had looked to relieved to find her daughter alone. The fact that it **had **happened so many times was beginning to bother Jack. Gothel seemed more worried about her existence than her safety. She let Rapunzel stay in the tower by herself for half the day, but whenever Rapunzel seemed to want to go outside, she would go into a frenzy.

"Rapunzel, mother's feeling a little run down. Why don't you sing for me, dear?" Rapunzel glanced over at Jack, a look of fear on her face. Her mother seemed to notice, "Rapunzel?"

"Yes…Mother…" She set up the room as she always had albeit slowly slower than usual, and began to sing her song:

_Flower gleam and glow  
Let your power shine  
Make the clock reverse  
Bring back what once was mine_

_Heal what has been hurt  
Change the Fates' design  
Save what has been lost  
Bring back what once was mine_

_What once was mine_

Her hair started to glow and her mother brushed it gently, gazing lovingly at her daughter's golden locks. Jack watched as Gothel's hair grew darker again, every strand of gray disappearing as Rapunzel finished her song. Rapunzel glanced at him over her shoulder and saw the shock on his face.

Jack could not believe his eyes. Her hair glowed when she sang, and not only that, it had made her mom young again. Rapunzel had magic hair that her mom used to keep her young. He couldn't say he was too amazed that she could use magic. It explained why she could see him. What made him angry was that she had never told him.

The moment her mother went to bed, Rapunzel immediately went back to her room where she found Jack staring at the sculpture he had made for her.

"Jack…?" He didn't answer her. "Jack, please don't freak out. I know it might be weird for me to have hair that glows and heals people and-"

"I'm not freaking out. I'm surprised but it doesn't bother me. I'm practically a ghost. People walk right through me. Why would I be bothered by something as simple as glowing hair?"

Rapunzel was silent for a moment. She didn't know what to say. He was too silent, and it bothered her because it had never happened before. "Then why are you being so quiet? This isn't like you."

Jack threw Pascal against the wall and it shattered into a million tiny pieces. "You never told me. This was the reason your mom keeps you here and you never told me?! I thought we were friends! I realized a long time ago that she never lets you leave this place. This is probably the most important part of your life and you just decided to neglect telling me. Don't you think it was something I deserved to know?! I watch you after I leave! I see what she does to you…" Jack whispered the last part to her.

Rapunzel pulled back, surprised at his reaction. She didn't think he'd be angry at her secret. "I…I don't understand. I thought…" She couldn't finish her thought.

"We've spent over two months talking and I've told you all of my secrets. I opened up to you while you kept your entire life behind a closed door! What exactly did you think was going to happen?! Did you think I couldn't be trusted?! Did you think I wouldn't understand?! Do you have any idea what it's like to live ten years of your life like you're invisible?! I spent a decade watching people walk right through me! Everything I did for them was taken for granted. I'm just as lonely as you are, if not more! At least you have a mother. I've been alone my entire life! " He didn't wait for her to respond and flew off into the night, leaving a trail of ice behind him.

Rapunzel stood stunned in the doorway. Everything he had just said and done was slowly being processed in her mind. She hadn't even noticed that they had been talking for over two months. It had seemed so natural that she hadn't given it a second thought. Had he really opened up to her with all his secrets in the time they've spent together? Why hadn't she told him the truth? What had she been afraid of?

The fragments of the broken sculpture lay on the floor. Tears threatened Rapunzel's eyes and she shivered, unsure if it was from the cold or the events that just occurred. She wrapped her sheets around herself to keep warm but it was no help. She touched the broken ice on the floor, but it melted at her touch. She couldn't just let things end like this.

She threw off the sheets and without another thought, slid down the side of the tower using her hair. On any other day, she would've rolled in the grass, admired the view from the bottom of her tower, and then suffocate in guilt for ignoring her mother's orders but she couldn't do that today. She didn't have time. She ran through the woods screaming his name.

"Jack! Jack…" She found herself at the lake where they met. He was sitting in the middle, staring at a lighted candle. He turned at his name, surprised that she had left her tower.

"What are you doing here, Rapunzel? I thought you'd never disobey your mother." He sounded bitter as he continued, "What do you want?"

Rapunzel didn't answer him. She didn't know how. What did she want when she came running here? She just looked at the flickering light from the candle on its few millimeters of wax. "If you don't have anything to say to me, then I'm just going to go." But Jack showed no sign of wanting to leave.

"I…I'm so sorry. I was just afraid. I was afraid that if you knew what I could do, you'd freak out and I'd never see you again. I…I don't really know how to be a good friend. I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth".

Jack sighed. "Look, I just need some time to figure things out okay? Let's just take you back to your tower." Before Rapunzel could protest, he called the wind and the two of them flew back to Rapunzel's tower. "I'll be back, I promise. I just need some time to think." She didn't look convinced. "Believe in me." She reached out to him, but that familiar cold feeling of air was all that hit her. Jack sighed again, and flew off into the night.

He didn't come back for weeks. She waited for him every night, hoping that she would see him in her room when night fell, but he didn't.

"Rapunzel dear, is something wrong?" Her mother finally asked, three weeks after his disappearance. Rapunzel didn't answer her. Gothel wasn't even sure she heard her.

"It'll be alright dear. Whatever is bothering you will be sorted out. As long as the two of us are together, everything will work out alright in the end." Her mother's words weren't comforting in the slightest. Gothel didn't bother to try again and went to bed shortly afterward.

Rapunzel couldn't sleep. Ever since Jack had left, Rapunzel had a hard time falling asleep again. Whenever she tried, she'd remember that day so long ago. The first time she had tried to leave the tower. She eventually gave up and went back to the main room. Jack was sitting on the window sill, his face slightly illuminated by the moonlight.

"Jack! You came back!" She half-whispered and half-screamed these words. She tried to fling herself at him in an attempt at a hug, but her arms went right through him. She tumbled right through him and out the window. She fell 40 feet through the air with the ground coming up to meet her. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact.

But it never came. Underneath her was a strong, cold wind, keeping her up. "Are you crazy?! You just almost died!" Jack yelled after hopping down to meet her. She didn't seem to care though. She was too happy to see him.

"You came back. I thought you'd never come back." Rapunzel started crying tears of joys.

Jack dropped his staff at the sudden development. "Hey. Hey now…Why are you crying? I promised you I'd come back and I did. I told you to believe in me." He tried to smirk his usual smirk but it looked a lot weaker than usual. "Some friend you are."

He reached out a hand to wipe away her tears before he remembered he couldn't touch them. His eyes shifted to the ground as his hand fell back to his side.

Rapunzel noticed what he tried to do and tried to sniffle away her tears. "I'm just…really happy."

Jack laughed slightly. He sounded less sad this time. "Hey. I got you a present." He took out a frozen bottle from underneath his cloak and inside it was a small chameleon. "As an apology. For breaking Pascal. And Happy New Year."

Rapunzel stepped back, slightly shocked. She had forgotten it was New Year's. "But I… I didn't get you anything. I'm so sorry Jack. I completely forgot it was your birthday."

Jack stared at her, a confused look on his face. "My birthday? It's not my birthday. Are you feeling okay?"

"Spirit of winter and all that. Shouldn't New Year's be your birthday?" Rapunzel seemed genuinely serious as she said all that.

Jack winked at her. "It's not like I'm baby Jesus. It's just a New Year. This is the first time I didn't make a snowstorm as the New Year's present to the world."

She giggled and reached out for the bottle. Her hand brushed his when she reached for it. She could touch him. She could feel that his hand was ice cold, and remarkably smooth.

Jack felt it too. Her hand was warm, and soft. He dropped the bottle, staring at her in shock. "You just touched me… How?! How is that possible?!" He grabbed her shoulders. The fact that he could do that shocked him even more. "I can touch you…W-"

Rapunzel didn't wait for anything else. She threw her arms around him in an awkward hug. Her shoulders pressed against his arms, making it hard for him to move. Her head was on his chest, but she couldn't hear a heartbeat. He was extremely cold against her skin and she couldn't help but shiver.

Jack noticed, and threw his cloak around her, putting his arms over that. "Heh. I'm sorry I can't keep you warm." Rapunzel shook her head. "It's okay. It doesn't get very cold around here." Jack held her closer, holding on for dear life. How long had it been since he felt something warm? How was it possible that he had never hugged someone before? It felt great. It was amazing even. He didn't want to let go, afraid that the chance might never come back.

The bottle had broken when Jack dropped it, and Pascal climbed onto her shoulder to join in on the hug. He could feel Rapunzel's tears on his shoulder. She was crying harder than ever, but she didn't seem sad at all. He pressed the back of her head closer to his chest. The warmth of her body touched him, and for the first time in a decade, he felt warm. For the first time in a decade, he felt alive and real. Jack himself almost wanted to cry, but he kept himself together, for Rapunzel's sake.

An eternity seemed to pass with the two of them like that, neither willing to let go. Finally, it was Jack who spoke. "Shouldn't we go back inside? What if your mom wakes up and sees you hugging thin air? She might think her daughter went crazy."

Rapunzel shook her head but she let go. "Let's play in the snow."

Jack smiled again, but it was completely genuine this time. He waved his staff in wide arcs as he raced around the base of the tower. Snow fell everywhere. Rapunzel made a snowball and threw it at him as he was completing his final arc.

Jack laughed in a somewhat evil way while making one of his own to pelt at her, "So someone decided to take a cheap shot."

"You're a master at this stuff. It's only fair!" she squealed. She ducked behind a mountain of snow and launched another one over her head. They continued to throw snowballs back and forth until Jack realized no more were coming from Rapunzel's side of the fort. He walked over to the enemy, prepared for an ambush, but all he saw was Rapunzel on the ground, making a snow angel.

"This is so much fun! Why doesn't it snow more often?" She didn't wait for her answer and just rolled over, to make another one. Jack and Pascal joined her before making gigantic snowballs. Jack stacked them on top of each other and showed her what a snowman looked like.

"Men don't look like that! No one looks like that." She cried. Jack laughed. They both knew she had no idea what men besides him looked like.

The played for hours in the snow, but the sun was beginning to rise. Rapunzel knew that it meant she had to return to her room. She dropped the ice cube she was making and pointed at the window, careful in case her mother might hear. Jack used the wind's power and returned her to the top of her tower.

They landed very softly in the tower and sneaked quietly into Rapunzel's small room. They stared at each other for a moment, and Rapunzel noticed that his eyes seemed to shimmer in the rising sun. They were gray, but they had so much life in them. There was something else there too, something that made them seem so magical. She reached out to hug him again, but like so many times before, she just went right through him.


	4. Birthday Wishes

**Author's Note: Story is complete on my end, but I won't post it all at once. Keep you guys waiting because I'm mean that way. **

Rapunzel and Jack didn't try to touch each other again. They went back to the way they were before that night in the snow: Talking, but avoiding all the subjects that they were afraid to discuss. Even though things were easy between the two of them, it still seemed like a wall had been created to separate them. Rapunzel had started to notice that Jack's eyes were filled with a deep sadness. It was always there, hiding behind his laughs and cheery attitude.

Jack taught Rapunzel how to make a guitar and how to play it. They would make ice sculptures for her room. She had made Pascal a small closet full of clothes, just as he had recommended. Their numerous activities brought them to the end of the winter air and summer was about to begin. Rapunzel was happily expecting the night that the floating lights would appear, like they always did on her birthday. One morning, she had found a bare spot wall on top of the fireplace in the main room.

Jack walked in on her as she was finishing her painting. "Hah. You actually found more space to paint? I'm surprised. I thought if there was any plain white paint left, you would've destroyed it already. What did you make?"

"They're the floating lights. Every year on my birthday, thousands of these lights float in the sky."

"You mean the lantern thing they do for the princess? I heard about it in the village. Apparently, it's a call for the lost daughter of the current king and queen. Her parents are hoping she sees them and might return to her kingdom someday."

Rapunzel looked at her painting thoughtfully, "A lost princess, huh? That sounds like it would be a great story."

Jack looked at her with curiosity. "Is something wrong?"

Rapunzel sighed. "It's just…Every year I would look at these lights and feel like they were meant for me. It made me want to go see them in person. It's been my dream for years."

"Well, why don't I take you this year? You are turning seventeen. Finally. That's a pretty big milestone."

Rapunzel stared at him in horror. "Go outside during the day?! I couldn't do that. What if someone saw us and attacked us. You could get hurt. I could get hurt. Pascal could get hurt." Pascal nodded thoughtfully.

Jack laughed. "I'm the spirit of winter. If that happened, I'd just throw a couple snowballs at them and scare them off. If they're really brave and keep trying, I'll freeze them in their tracks and keep moving myself along."

"I guess that's true. Well, it couldn't hurt to ask mother."

Jack hesitated at her words. He was sure Rapunzel's mother wouldn't let her go. "That's not a good idea."

She paused while putting her paints away. "Why not?"

"It just isn't. It'd be so much easier to sneak out. I could fly you over the forest and be back the same day."

"But if she found out, it would break her heart! I couldn't do that to her."

"Look, just find a way to make her stay out of the tower for a couple days and it'll work. We'll be back so fast that she won't even know what happened."

Jack spent several nights trying to convince Rapunzel to sneak out with him on her birthday. She was very hesitant at first, not because she was afraid of the outside world, but she was very concerned with how her other would react. However, Jack's charming words finally brought her around.

"So here's the plan. You'll ask your mom to go and get you some more blue paint. While she's gone we'll fly out to the kingdom and spend the day there having fun and just messing around and stuff. We'll watch the lanterns at night and then be back by midnight." Rapunzel still felt guilty but agreed to his plans. She sighed.

"Hey…Everything's going to be great. You have to believe me. We're going to have a lot of fun." Jack's words were something she had heard very often. She couldn't help but trust him when he said them. She leaned her head against his shoulder, and for the first time in a long time, she fell right through him. She stared at him, horror on her face for what she had just done.

Jack smiled, trying to hide the sadness he felt. "It's okay. I didn't think anyone would ever be able to touch me. The fact that you did it once was enough. Don't worry." He looked outside the curtains to where the sunlight was starting to creep into the room. "Your mom is going to wake up soon. You should head to bed."

Rapunzel was afraid to touch him again. She knew that it would only hurt him even more. "I will, but can you… Can you stay here tonight? I want to see you when I wake up."

He didn't know how to respond. His mouth fell open slightly at her words. "You want me to stay here and watch you sleep?!" Saying it out loud, made it sound a lot creepier than he had intended.

Rapunzel frowned. "No. I mean, don't you sleep?"

"Of course I sleep, but I don't have to. It comes with being a sexy demi-god. If I stayed here, there really wouldn't be anything I could do."

"Oh…I see…I guess that would be really boring." Rapunzel crawled underneath her sheets, and Pascal joined her.

Everyone was silent for a minute. "Want me to sing you a lullaby?" Jack said, trying to break the tension. Rapunzel smiled and nodded, sleepily.

He quirked his eyebrow at her, "Pfft… I was kidding. I don't sing." He noticed she had frowned at his words and sighed, knowing that he had brought it upon himself. Curse him and his big mouth. "Uh…what are the words to that song that you sing to you mother? Flower, something glow?"

Rapunzel chuckled softly. "Flower…. gleam... and… glow… Let… your… power…. shine… make… the… clock reverse….Bring….. back…. what…. once…. was…. mine." She fell asleep at the last word but her hair had started to glow. Golden rays of light made everything around her bright yellow.

Jack walked over to her sleeping form, unable to control his curiosity. How could she sleep when her hair was glowing like the sun at noon? Slowly, very slowly, Jack reached down and tried to touch her hair. His hand didn't slide right through. He could feel it. Every freaky glowing strand.

But then the light from her hair faded, and her hair fell through his fingers again. The revelation hit Jack like a sofa to the face. He could touch her when her hair glowed. He backed away from her, and laughed. He laughed so loudly, that he was scared he'd wake her up, but she remained sound asleep.

Jack thought back to the snowball fight at the foot of the tower. Her hair wasn't glowing back then, but he could touch her. Why? It didn't make any sense to him. He'd have to test this out now, while she was asleep so that it wouldn't scare her. _What were the words to her song?_

"Flower glow and shine. Uhh…Something, make your power gleam, bring back the clock, and something." Rapunzel's hair stayed the way it was. He swore, and tried again with different words. It didn't work. He stayed in her room for hours, unable to give up this battle, but in the end, he couldn't make her hair glow again.

Eventually, all his hard work woke Rapunzel who rubbed her eyes at the sight of him. "You're still here?" She yawned.

"Uh, yeah." Jack looked around the room, trying to find an excuse for why he was still in the tower. "I was looking at your paintings and I noticed that they were everywhere. Even on your furniture. How do you even reach the ceiling to paint there?"

"Oh, I use my hair like a rope. There are hooks everywhere so I can curl it on them. Wait here for a second. I'm going to go wash my face." Rapunzel was gone and back so quickly, that it surprised even Jack. "So, what do you want to do today?"

Jack thought for a moment. He still wanted to learn the song to make her hair glow, but he could wait. He didn't want to tell her his theory just yet. "Why don't I teach you how to make a chess set?"

"Huh? What's chess?" Rapunzel asked, eyes shining at the thought of doing something new. He sat her down and explained to her the basic rules of it. "Now, why don't you get some of the firewood and I'll teach you how to make the pieces and the board."

Pascal, Jack, and Rapunzel spent the rest of the afternoon creating a chess board and pieces. Jack explained how each one moved and what they looked like while Rapunzel carved them out of wood and painted them different colors. Everything was peaceful until Gothel's voice broke it.

"Rapunzel! Let down your hair!" Rapunzel ran over to help her mother into the tower. As she was pulling her up, Jack flew out the window and caused a small gust of air to rock Gothel's ascent, almost causing her to lose her grip.

When her mother had finally entered the tower, she was a mess. "Ugh, it's such a hassle coming back up the tower. If only you could pull faster. Hahaha, oh darling, I'm only teasing." She nudged Rapunzel's ribs and moved to look in the mirror. Her reflection was a mess, "Rapunzel dear, why don't you sing for me?"

Jack's focus was turned up to maximum potential at the words. He listened intently from his spot on the window sill, his eyes never leaving Rapunzel's form.

_Flower, gleam and glow_

_Let your power shine_

_Make the clock reverse_

_Bring back what once was mine_

_Heal what has been hurt_

_Change the Fates' design_

_Save what has been lost_

_Bring back what once was mine_

_What once was mine…_

Jack committed the words to memory. He wouldn't forget them. That was one of the great things about being immortal. Memories didn't fade when you really paid them a lot of attention.

"So, what did you do today why I was out?" Gothel asked her daughter half-heartedly.

"Oh! Mother! I made a chess set. Isn't it beautiful?" Rapunzel answered. She ran over to her creation so she could show it to her mother. "It took me all morning, but I think it turned out great."

Her mother looked at the set with slight panic in her eyes. "Chess? Honey, who taught you about that?"

Rapunzel looked over at Jack, who just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't seem to care what she answered. "Jack Frost?"

Gothel's face showed traces of annoyance. The very sight irritated Jack. "We've been through this many times, sweetheart. There's no such thing as Jack Frost. I don't know where you get that silly notion from. Do you even hear yourself?"

Jack flew angrily up to her face. "Hey! That's rude."

Gothel continued on her rant as if Jack never spoke, "Whenever you make something new, that's your excuse. Are you hiding something from me?"

Rapunzel glanced in Jack's direction. "What could I possibly be hiding from you?"

Gothel's expression grew dark, and Jack could tell she was trying to restrain her fear and anger, "Have you been leaving the tower at night? Has someone been coming up to see you?"

"Of course not. The tower is huge. How could anyone climb up here? And how could I come back up after going down. Look, I know it sounds very childish, but-"

"So you know how childish it is then."

"What part of me is childish?!" Jack remarked, annoyance clearly in his voice.

"But when I went to the lake—"

Gothel's face contorted in rage. "You've never been to the lake! That was a dream! Get a hold of yourself Rapunzel! Stop living in these ridiculous fantasies! You have NEVER and will Never leave this tower!"

Both Jack and Rapunzel fell silent, stunned by her harsh words. Gothel took one look at her daughter and fell to the chair. "Ugh, now I'm the bad guy."

Rapunzel walked over to the woman and put her head on her mother's lap. "I'm sorry mother. I won't mention it again."

Gothel sighed but she smiled and kissed the top of Rapunzel's head. "I love you my flower."

"I love you more."

"I love you most."

Jack almost gagged. The display in front of him was disgusting. Gothel didn't love her daughter, He was sure of this. He was almost certain that she was only using her for her magic hair. He had to do something.

After darkness fell, Jack sat on Rapunzel's bed. He'd have to wait for her to fall asleep if he wanted to test his theory but he wanted to talk before that.

"Why do you listen to her?" That was the first thing he asked when Rapunzel walked into the room.

"Huh?"

"Your mother. Why do you listen to that hag? She's just using you. How do you not feel that?"

Rapunzel looked like she had taken offence to his words. "My mother isn't a hag. She's just a bit over-protective. She's afraid I might get hurt."

"A bit over-protective?! She just lied to your face. How can you call that protecting you?"

"She doesn't think you're real. That's all. If she could see you, then she'd understand. I'm sure if she could see you, then she wouldn't lie to me. She loves me, Jack."

"She loves you…? She loves you?! She doesn't love you! I—" Jack paused. What was he about to say? That he loved her? That was just stupid. There was no way he could've been thinking that. Jack sighed "Never mind."

Pascal's head had been riveting back and forth at their conversation, not sure what he should do. But at Jack's words, everything finally fell silent. Rapunzel didn't seem to notice his inner struggle. She didn't want to make things worse and picked up Pascal before curling underneath the sheets. "I know you might not think she loves me, but I do love her, and that's all that really matters." She paused before continuing, "Will you stay here tonight?"

Jack nodded and sat on his staff. Rapunzel smiled and hugged Pascal close. She fell asleep shortly afterward. Jack leaned in on Rapunzel and whispered the song at her hair. It began to glow as bright as ever. Jack moved a strand of hair from her face.

It didn't pass through his hands. He could touch her. He reached out to do so but held back at the last moment. _What would happen if she woke up right now and found him touching her face_? He pulled back his hand and stopped whispering the words to her song. Rapunzel's hair eventually stopped glowing after a few moments.

Jack stared into her face and whispered, "I can touch you…But does it matter? What am I supposed to do? If I told you that I could touch you when your hair glowed, would you sing for me? "

Jack smiled slightly at the thought. How would she react if she heard him say that? He stared at her face for a very long time. He didn't say the words to her magic song, nor did he try to touch her. He merely looked at her sleeping face while thousands of thoughts flew through his mind.

And then, suddenly, everything became clear. A single thought floated to his conscious: A single, precious question that he didn't have the answer to. But he knew, deep down in his soul, he needed to know before he took her to see the lanterns on her birthday. The question rose to his lips as the morning sun touched the very tip of her tower.

"Do I love you?"


	5. Fear

**Author's Note: The Label says completed but it's not really completed. There's 3 chapters left after this one. **

Jack left the days and nights behind him. Never once did he slow down to rest until he was far far away from her tower. Jack let the wind lead him where she wished. He didn't have a destination. He simply wanted to think. Jack flew through towns, cities, kingdoms, and even countries. A frigid wind followed him but no one could see it. They felt the clouded emotions that he left behind, but not a single person saw him. Many people even walked through him, but he didn't care.

As the days passed, he realized that he didn't care about anyone else anymore. Besides Rapunzel, there wasn't a single person in this world that he cared about. He needed to know the truth, but it would not come to him if he stayed by her. "What am I really feeling?"

Jack landed in the middle of an European village. A woman was soothing a crying child in her arms.

"The nightmares keep coming. Why won't they end, mommy?"

"They're just nightmares sweetheart. They're not real. The boogeyman isn't real. They're just bad dreams."

"But he is real. I've seen him in my dreams. I've seen him in my room and when I can't sleep at night."

"Shh….sh…Don't worry. It'll get better someday. I promise."

Jack watched the display before him. He knew why this child was having nightmares. Pitch Black had been terrorizing the continent for years. His nightmares were feasting on people's hopes and dreams. The one place he wasn't able to touch was the Land of the Sun. While Jack was with Rapunzel, he had ignored the pains of the outside world.

Jack whispered to himself, "What am I supposed to do…"

"What do we have here? A boy who's afraid of being alone?" Jack turned his head quickly at the noise. A tall, pale, man dressed in a black cloak was standing above him, smiling down on him.

Jack looked at him defiantly. "Boy? I'm not a boy."

"Oh? What's this? You can see me? My, my. It's rare for people to see me during the day. Are you perhaps, one of them?"

Jack turned his staff on the pale man. "What do you mean 'one of them'?"

The man smiled. "Chosen by the Lunaoff Prince. The Man in the Moon. One of his precious Guardians. They've been ruining my beautiful nightmares. The battle has been absolutely tiring lately."

"The Man in the Moon…" Jack's eyes grew wide and he grabbed the man's cloak in his fist. "How do you know about him?!"

The man laughed. "Why, how rude of me. I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Pitch, Pitch Black. The Man in the Moon only came here because of me. You exist because I decided to chase him here."

Jack let go and backed away. "You're…the Boogeyman…? You're the reason these people screaming and crying every night?"

"Lovely, so you've heard of me. Did you hear that mother over there? Apparently I don't exist. Perhaps she'll feel differently after another nightmare tonight." Pitch's shadows surrounded the little boy with his mother. "He believes in me. I can taste his fears on my lips."

"Why...? Why would you do that?"

"Fear is my center, my core, my very essence. Fear is what I put into the world."

Jack stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"We can only touch the world if we exist in the people we are trying to touch. If you don't understand that, there's no way you could be a Guardian."

Jack's anger bubbled to the surface. "Shut up…"

Pitched laughed and began to dance around him, "You have no idea what you represent. You may as well not exist."

"You don't know anything!"

"Oh, I think I do. People just walk right through you. _You _don't even think you exist. You feel as if you're alone in this world because no one can touch you." Pitch reached into Jack's chest and wiggled his fingers. "No one can touch your heart like I do. Why don't you let me in, and I'll show you what I can see?"

Jack remained silent, and Pitch took that as his opportunity to continue.

"I can show you everything you want to see. I hold all the answers you seek. Why you're here, how you feel, and what it is that you need to do. I can show you everything." In Pitch's hand was a dancing lizard, formed by dark shadows. "Do you want me to show you?"

Jack's hand hovered in mid-air. He thought of Rapunzel. He thought of her smile, and the way she laughed and giggled whenever he taught her something new. He thought of her green eyes and the way she curled up in her blond hair. His mind drifted back to that night, the first night he touched her. He remembered the warmth of her body.

Any and all hesitation left his body, he grabbed the lizard.

Smoke and shadows surrounded him. Pitch's smiling face was the only thing he saw. Jack tried to reach out and punch him but his hands were restrained by dark tentacles wrapping around his wrist.

"Sweet dreams, Jack Frost."

Jack was floating in the darkness. The setting was surprisingly familiar, but he couldn't recall when. He could feel water around him, suffocating him. He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe. There was a glimmer of light that called to him. It spoke to him, and said his name. _Jack Frost_. That voice, he knew that voice. It was the voice of the Man in the Moon. This feeling, he recognized it now. He was in that lake, that lake where he came from, where he first saw Rapunzel.

He could see her then, above the ice. He could see her eyes. She was looking at a group of musicians. Someone had braided her hair using flowers, and Jack couldn't help but smile. She looked beautiful. She started dancing. She looked so happy. Then, Jack noticed something else, a man dressed in blue was with her. The music ended and he had his arms around her.

Jack screamed her name but she didn't hear him. The scene shifted, and she was on a boat with that man. They were watching the floating lights and her eyes shined. She turned back to look at that man, and handed him a crown. He turned it down and they pushed two lanterns into the sky. He took her hand, they were about to kiss, and then the scene blacked out again.

He could see Rapunzel holding the man in blue inside the tower. The man was chained up against the stairs. He seemed to be bleeding to death. The man in blue took a piece of glass and cut off all her hair, causing it to turn brown before fainting in her arms. She was singing but her hair couldn't glow. It couldn't heal him.

Jack watched the events playing out before him, fear surrounding him on every corner. She was staring at the dead man with tears in her eyes. One of them fell on his cheek. Lights shot out across the room, and the symbol representing the Land of the Sun glowed for a minute before disappearing, taking the man's wound with it. He wakes up, and Rapunzel grabs onto him for dear life, like she had grabbed onto Jack that night at the bottom of the tower.

Jack remembered. She had been crying when she was hugging him. Her tears had magic too. That was the only explanation. They could let her touch him. Where the things he was seeing real?

The next scene was at their wedding. The mystery man was marrying her. Pascal was the ring bearer. Jack wasn't around. She didn't seem to miss him at all. She had fallen in love with someone else. The priest closed his book and the newly-weds kiss.

"Rapunzel! Rapunzel!" Jack felt it: Jealousy. He banged his fists against the ice, but it wouldn't break. He had broken free of the bonds around his arms but the ice was still keeping him away. "Rapunzel…" The images faded, and he was left alone in the darkness. He felt water slide down his face. Was he crying?

Pitch's voice sounded in the darkness, "Have you gotten the answer to your questions, Jack?"

"Pitch..? How do you know my name?!"

"You let me into your heart, see your fears, and then show them to you. It's not possible for me to not know your name by now. Don't you see Jack? You're afraid that this girl will fall in love with someone else. You're afraid that you'll have to watch it all happen, unable to stop it. You're afraid that someday, she won't be able to see you anymore, or even worse, that someday, she won't want to see you anymore." Pitch chuckled. "Funny what a simple girl can do to the heart." Pitch's cold voice warmed for a moment, wistful, as if he was reminiscing about an old memory that he kept close to his heart.

A silence hung in the air before Pitch continued talking, "The Man in the Moon gave you your powers, but he also cursed you with being alone for all eternity, completely invisible to the world around you. As long as the world continues to think you don't exist, you won't."

"How…How do I make them see me?" Jack's voice shook as he said those words.

"Join me, and together, we will make this place a world where we are both believed in. Just look around you. Do you remember this place, Jack? In this lake, you touched fear for the first time as an immortal. I touched me before you could even see the Man in the Moon. We can rule together, as a family."

And then, all of a sudden, the darkness faded. He was back in that village. Alone. Pitch was nowhere to be seen, but Jack could feel his presence and hear his voice. "We'll be in touch." Pitch's laughter could be heard for several moments before fading away into some far corner of the Earth.

Jack sat down on the ground. If he joined Pitch and helped him with his plans, would people be able to see him? He had seen it in the villages years ago. Pitch's shadows scared people. Humans could see them, his shadows could consume them. "Rapunzel…"

He thought back to the images he saw in the lake: Rapunzel falling in love with someone else. Rapunzel dancing with someone else. Celebrating her birthday with someone else. Then he thought back to the end, when that man cut off her hair. Her hair lost her magic when he cut it. Would the same thing happen now? He had to know.

Jack commanded the wind to take him back to the tower. He could see Rapunzel painting a girl on top of a tree. It was on the mural with the floating lights. The girl she was painting had really long blond hair. Jack watched her paint, a sad, lonely expression on her face. He loved her. He realized it then. He loved her, and he never wanted her to make that expression ever again.

"Rapunzel?"

Her hand paused on the wall and she turned her head toward him, "Jack? Jack!" She hopped down from the fireplace and ran to him, staring into his eyes intently. "Where have you been?"

"What do you mean?"

"That morning, I woke up, and you weren't there. You never came back. I waited and waited but you didn't come back." She looked at the ground, miserable.

"Rapunzel…How long have I been gone?"

"It's been months. My birthday is tomorrow." Rapunzel looked at the floor, tears in her eyes. "I don't think we should go tomorrow."

Jack's eyes widened with horror. He had been stuck in that lake for months. He didn't have time to wonder what that meant though. Rapunzel was acting strangely. "What do you mean? Why not?"

"I'm not supposed to leave this tower. What if someone sees me? What if someone learns the secret about my hair and decides to cut it and try and take it for themselves? I don't want to take that risk."

Jack was silent for a minute, remembering those images in the lake. Pitch's shadow had reached almost every kingdom, except this one. He would never be able to enter the Land of the Sun. "What happens… when someone cuts your hair?"

Rapunzel moved her hair to the side to show a few strands of brown. "It turns brown and loses its magic. It doesn't grow back either."

Jack understood then, that he could never let anything happen to her hair. It meant that he would never be able to touch her again. She might even lose the ability to see him without it. "Rapunzel, can you cry right now?"

"What? Why would I cry? You've been acting really strange. You're not supposed to lie to someone and then return months later, asking them to cry." Rapunzel seemed angry.

"I want to see if you'll cry tears of joy at seeing me like you did last time." Jack couldn't do it. He felt like there was something pressing on his chest that was stopping him from telling her the truth.

Rapunzel laughed and feigned punching him in the face, "You're so stupid Jack."

Jack laughed. "Respect your elders missy. I'm the one who teaches you everything."

She chuckled and a few tears fell from her eyes. Jack reached up and wiped her tears away. "Heh. I didn't really think you'd cry."

She laughed, "I'm so happy you're back."

He hugged her, "I'm happy too."

Her eyes widened with shock at his blatant affection. "You can touch me. You're hugging me!"

"I know," he whispered. "I'll be taking you to see the floating lights tomorrow, whether you like it or not."

"Huh?"

"I don't care if your mom knows tomorrow. I'm taking you to see the floating lights."

Rapunzel smiled. "I missed you a lot."

"I missed you too."


	6. Day in Town

Jack didn't leave her tower that day. He was tempted to watch her sleep but he felt kind of creepy about it, so he slept in front of her fireplace. He laughed at the irony and felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "I'm pretty much sleeping next to a burning fire, but the only time I feel warm is when your arms are around me. Funny, isn't it?"

The next morning, Rapunzel asked her mother to get her new paints for her birthday and her mother promised she'd be back in one day. After a sickening display of false affection, Jack commanded the wind to fly them to the kingdom. "Is this what the forest looks like from the top?"

Jack nodded. "It's really pretty. I can't see this stuff from the tower. Oh look! Birds, butterflies! And what is that?!" Rapunzel was pointing at a big structure before the waterfall.

"That's a dam. They use it to decide which way they want the rivers to flow. It's the reason the waterfall doesn't flood your tower."

Rapunzel was amazed. "Wow. How long did they take to make that?" Before Jack could answer her question, she started flailing in the air. "It's the kingdom, I can see it! I can see the little village too. And the market!"

Jack let them down in the forest. "We can't fly in there or they might see you and freak out. We'll walk from here." She nodded, and they quickly descended the footpath that would lead them to the heart of town.

He started eying her hair and remembered the image of her with the long braid. "You should do something with your hair too. People might step on it."

Rapunzel turned back, seeing it trail into the forest. "What should I do?"

Jack noticed some girls running toward them on the bridge. "Why don't you ask them to braid it?" he asked innocently.

She caught one of them by the shoulder and asked them to do something with her hair. It took most of the morning but by the time they were done, there were two braids that made a very fat bun at the back of her head, followed by a long ponytail leading to her toes.

Jack admired her appreciatively. It wasn't a braid, but she looked even better than she did in that nightmare. "You look great."

Rapunzel smiled and thanked the girls for their work. Rapunzel ran into town afterwards, marveling at everything. Jack walked casually behind her. She saw a little boy selling bread, and a woman selling gorgeous bouquets. There were children playing with their parents and a group of people playing with money and cups on the side.

She ran from place to place, stopping to admire everything but never staying in one place for too long. Jack was interested too. Everywhere else that he had been, people were falling to Pitch's nightmares. It seemed that the only thing unhappy about the Land of the Sun was that they were missing their princess.

"Jack! Look! That little boy is selling flags. I wish we could buy one." Rapunzel seemed to want everything now that she'd seen it.

Jack laughed and looked over at the men gambling in the corner. "Here's what we'll do. You'll tell those men over there that you're a prophet and know which cup is right. Tell them that if they want to know, they have to give you some of their winnings and then boom! We'll have enough money to buy you one of those flags."

Rapunzel looked terrified at the idea. "They have pointy teeth. What if they're cannibals?"

"Not everyone can have perfect straight teeth like me. Most people eat too many sweets and end up with teeth like that."

"Are you sure?"

"Trust me. I've seen a lot worse than cannibals."

Rapunzel did as she was told and the dealer behind the counter put a die on a box. He moved the cups around left and right to try and confuse the watchers. At the very last minute, Jack commanded the wind to blow the die left, right into the first cup.

"First cup on your left," Jack said. Rapunzel repeated the information to the gamblers. To all of their amazement, she was right. They played a few more rounds and by the end of it, the dealer was walking away in tears. The men with pointy teeth were tossing Rapunzel in the air like a trophy.

When she was back on the ground, she was giggling while counting her coins,"Wow! So when you guess stuff right, you get money?"

"Nah. That's called gambling. If you guessed wrong, we would've lost money. What I did with the wind is called cheating. It's a technique used by the best at the game."

Rapunzel nodded, interested in everything he told her. "Cheating, huh? You're really good at it. Can you teach me?"

Jack laughed and shook his head. "It's only for tricksters like me. Innocent people aren't good at it." He pointed at a vendor that sold peanuts. "Buy some of those, they're really good."

Rapunzel bought many things that day: Books, feed for Pascal, new paint, flowers, toys, food, a new dress, and even a satchel to carry everything in. She went to the town library and looked at different books with Jack next to her. They looked at maps and Jack pointed out all the places he had been. Near the end of the day, she drew a giant snowflake using chalk on the floor. Jack smiled at her appreciatively. "No one is going to know what that is."

"That's okay, I know what it is, and it's beautiful." She sat down by the fountain, watching the townsfolk dance.

An image of Rapunzel dancing with the man in blue appeared in his mind, "Why don't you dance with them? They seem like they're having a lot of fun."

"Well, I'd rather be with you." Moved at her words, Jack reached out to take her hand, but he stopped himself. Knowing that at this time, he wouldn't be able to touch her.

"I like having you here."

They sat in silence for a moment. Then, Rapunzel got up and walked over to a mural. The king and queen were painted on it. The queen was holding the lost princess in her arms. At the foot of the mural were several bouquets and cards full of wishes.

"The kingdom loves their princess. Everyone in it wants her back." Jack's words hit her slightly.

"Even though they've never met her? What if she was a really mean and cruel person?"

Jack laughed. "Sometimes, you just have to trust your gut feeling. The people love their king and queen, why wouldn't they love their daughter just as much?"

Rapunzel was deep in thought. Everyone in the kingdom was willing to trust a princess that they had never met with their lives. She looked at Jack next to her. She would've been safe as long as he was nearby. Why had she been so afraid to leave her tower?

"Hey…Doesn't she kind of look like you?"

Rapunzel snapped out of her trance. "Huh…What?"

"The baby in the mural. She looks just like you. No one in this kingdom has blond hair. No one, except you. Haven't you noticed that?"

Rapunzel thought over the day. He was right. Everyone she had seen along the way had brown, black or red hair. She was the only one with blonde.

"Don't you think that's kind of strange?"

Rapunzel nodded, "Must be a coincidence."

"Even your mother has black hair. Isn't that strange to you?"

Rapunzel didn't answer him. She didn't have an answer for him. She had never found it strange before coming into town. There wasn't any quicksand, cannibals, or bandits. "When was the last plague?"

Jack looked at her, disturbed and confused. "The plague? I don't know. Before I came out of the ice. There hasn't been one since."

So was there anything her mother told her about that was real? Had her mother lied about everything?

Jack noticed the sad expression on her face. "Hey, let's go. There's somewhere I want to take you."

He took her to the harbor. Night had already fallen and everyone in town had prepared their lanterns for the night. "Why are we here?" Rapunzel asked.

"This is my birthday present to you. I want it to be the best one you'll ever get."

Jack dragged his staff over the surface of the lake, and it froze over. He made the ice as thick as possible, even frosting over the top. "You bought boots today like I told you right? It means you can walk on the ice without slipping."

Rapunzel pulled the boots on and followed after him. The ice was surprisingly thick and carried her weight easily. They walked to the very center of it and waited for the festival to start.

Rapunzel dragged her finger over the ice, drawing pictures. She drew a duck, Pascal, a horse, a bird, and something that looked like cupid. Her expression was still sad.

"Is something wrong?"

"I'm terrified."

"Why? I thought this was your dream."

Rapunzel nodded. "It is. That's why I'm afraid. What if it's not everything I've dreamed?"

"It will be. You've been locked away in a tower all your life. How amazing could you possibly have imagined it?"

Rapunzel laughed. "So what if it is. What do I do then?"

Jack's thought floated back to that moment when he saw her dancing with another man. "How about I give you a new dream?"

"Sure."

"Live your life."

"What?"

"Live your life." Jack stared directly in her eyes and smiled. "You can't do that inside your tower."

Rapunzel returned his smile. "Will you stay with me if I do?"

Jack's cheeks tinged a very light red. "I will."

They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, leaning into each other without meaning to. Their lips were barely an inch apart before Jack pulled away. "Wait. There's something I have to tell you."

Rapunzel pulled back, "What is it?"

"I've been hiding a secret from you. When I was gone for the past couple of months, I met a man who showed me a dream. In that dream, you were with someone else. You liked him. The two of you got married. When I saw that happen, my heart broke. Rapunzel, I realized that I can't lose you. I can never lose you. I guess what I'm trying to say is-"

Jack lost his thought. The first lantern had started floating in the sky. Rapunzel followed his eyes and saw it too. There were thousands of them following after it. It came from the town, and the boats in the river around the kingdom. They were coming from everyone in the Land of the Sun, calling their lost princess.

Jack flew out of the way and used the winds to guide the closest ones in Rapunzel's direction. She pushed it higher in the air and giggled. Jack looked down at her, "Want to come join me?"

She nodded and the wind blew her into the air, in the middle of the lanterns. There were thousands of them, twirling around her, heading further and further into the sky. They clouded the citizens in the village from view. "Thanks Jack. This was the best birthday I've ever had. And for the record, I don't ever want you to leave either."

They smiled at each other once more, this time they both knew there was something there, something much deeper than friendship. They walked back to the docks quietly; contently. They had the same thoughts even though neither of them said it out loud. They didn't need to.

"Hello Miss," Their heads shot up at the voice. "I didn't mean to scare you but I received word from the guards that a girl with hair as golden as the sun was seen around town. I am the Captain of the guards. I was instructed by the king and queen that any personage with hair like yours most be escorted back to the palace."


	7. Lost and Found

They walked through the halls of the castle silently. The guard was explaining the procedures to them. Apparently, Rapunzel was suspected of being the lost princess, something that did not surprise Jack in the slightest. In fact, he believed it without a moment's hesitation.

However, Rapunzel was explaining the impossibility of this with every corridor they passed. "I already have a mother, and she's been with me for as long as I can remember."

"I've hardly ever left my tower. How could I be a princess?"

"What is a kidnapper?"

Jack didn't find any of that to be a problem. In fact, the only thing that he found strange was this guard. He spotted a girl walking on ice and didn't find that the least bit surprising in the middle of summer. Jack shook his head in disappointment at the low standards of security in this land. He couldn't blame the criminals for choosing the jewels in this kingdom to steal.

After what felt like an hour of walking, they finally arrived in what looked like a nursery, except there weren't any children in sight. "Here we are young lady. The king and queen will be arriving shortly."

Rapunzel waited for the guard to leave before talking to Jack. "What should we do?"

"Wait? It doesn't look like there _is_ much for us to do in here. Neither of us are babies."

Rapunzel sighed. "I meant about getting home. What if mother finds out we left? We've been here a lot longer than we'd planned. She could be home right now!"

Jack shook his head. "One problem at a time. Let's get this out of the way first. Who knows? You might actually be the lost princess and we won't have to worry about getting you home before bedtime."

Rapunzel laughed. "That's just silly. Imagine me being the princess…"

"It's not that hard to believe you know. You've got all the qualities. Magic hair, pretty face, generous attitude."

Rapunzel's head snapped in his direction. "You think I'm pretty?"

"Yes. I think you're very pretty." They laughed together for a moment, but it was interrupted by the sound of running footsteps. The king and queen had arrived and their eyes were locked on Rapunzel.

The queen reached out to touch her face. "This is her…My girl...You really did come back to us."

"She has your eyes." The king answered, holding back tears.

"What?" Rapunzel asked, her head swiveling in all directions.

"You are our daughter, I'm sure of it. Everything about you...Your eyes, your hair...I would never forget it." The queen said.

The guard offered a suggestion. "Perhaps we should cut a strand or two? To be sure?"

Jack blasted cold hair throughout the room. He could not let that happen.

The king put an arm around his wife, "Did someone open a window? It just got awfully cold in here."

Rapunzel looked at Jack uneasily, trying to tell him it would be okay. He let the winds die down a little but the anger was still evident on his face.

The guards hurried to close the windows and pushed them down to hold it. It did nothing to help the temperature in the room.

"Perhaps this is a sign that we shouldn't cut her hair." The king offered.

Immediately, the freezing cold disappeared. Jack was grinning from the reactions of the people around him. The king nodded appreciatively. "Young lady, when someone cuts your hair, does it turn brown?"

Rapunzel's eyes widened with shock. "How did you know that? No one was supposed to know that!" She pulled her hair to the side and showed everyone the strands of hair that never grew.

The queen moved away from her husband so she could speak to Rapunzel directly. "When you were kidnapped, there were strands of brown hair and scissors left in your crib. We believe that whoever wanted you was trying to steal your hair. Although I can't fathom why."

Jack's face was expressionless. He had guessed the whole story but this confirms it. Gothel had obviously broken into the palace, stole the baby and hid her in the tower. She must've known that Rapunzel's hair had healing magic.

Rapunzel backed away a few steps, her hands on her mouth. "Mother… No, it can't be." She backed into the crib and accidentally knocked it over. "This can't be possible. She...All those years..." Everything clicked slowly in her mind. It made sense but she couldn't believe it. No, she could. She didn't want to believe it.

The queen took her by the shoulders. "Your mother must've been the woman who we saw take you. Did she do horrible things to you? Oh my...Our poor girl…Guards, go to the woods! Find this woman! Lock her away!"

Rapunzel grabbed onto the queen's arm, "No! Wait! Please! Let me go to her. Let me talk to her! I…I need to talk to her. I need to know the truth. Just give me an hour to talk to her. An hour, and you can send the guards after me."

The king hesitated but gave in at the end. There was just something about those eyes that he couldn't say no to, "Let me gather up the guards. They'll take you back into the forest and ensure that you are safe."

Rapunzel shook her head. "I already have someone who will protect me. Let's go, Jack." He nodded and the two of them ran for the entrance.

The king and queen looked at each other. "Jack?"

The moment they stepped foot out of the castle, he commanded the wind to take them back to the tower. Rapunzel normally would've admired the view but there was too much on her mind. "When we get back, can you let me talk to her alone?"

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. If I need help, I'll scream for you, but I need to do this alone."

They landed in the clearing underneath her tower. He bent down slightly to look her square in the eyes, "Please, be careful."

She nodded and a small, sad smiled appeared on her lips. "I will. Now it's your turn to believe in me."

The wind took her up to the main room. No one was there. Rapunzel looked around the room, thinking about her life before this day began. This had been her home for 16 years. Was everything true? Had her mother really stolen her away from her real parents?

"Rapunzel? What are you doing still up?" Her mother's sugary voice sounded normal, but it felt different hearing it now.

"Mother…" Rapunzel turned to the woman. She stood next to the woman, almost the same height as her now. "I'm the lost princess, aren't I?"

Her mother froze for a moment but she forced a smile on her face, "Oh Rapunzel do you even hear yourself? Why would you ask such a ridiculous question?"

She saw it, the fear that was in her eyes. The forced smile. She could see everything clearly now. She backed away from the woman. "So it's true. It's all true. Was the only thing you ever cared about my hair?! Did you ever care about me?"

Gothel grabbed for her daughter but she backed away again. "Rapunzel!"

"Did you ever even love me...?" There were tears in Rapunzel's eyes but she blinked them away. Gothel's silence was enough of an answer. She turned to the stairs leading to her bedroom. She would get her things and leave.

"How…how did you find out?!"

"I found my real parents, and I'm never coming back here." Rapunzel shot a look of pure hatred at her mother, "I suggest you run while you have the chance. They'll be sending guards here to arrest you soon."

Rapunzel felt a sharp blow to the head, knocking her forward. Gothel caught her before she hit the ground. "Now look at what you've made me done, Rapunzel. It'll be alright though. I'll take you somewhere no one will ever find you again." Gothel whispered the words to her while petting her hair fondly.


	8. Broken

**A/N: Recommend you play Tales from the Dead Poet (All the Chapters) by Brunuhville while you read this. This is it! Last chapter! Enjoy! Or be angry with me. Either reaction is suitable. **

Jack was getting impatient. What was taking her so long? She had been up there for twenty minutes at the very least. It had taken them 5 minutes to fly there. The guards were palace horseman. They would be arriving soon. Jack flew up to the tower.

"Rapunzel?!" His eyes darted in every direction. Neither mother nor daughter were anywhere in sight. "RAPUNZEL!

It was then that he heard a faint rustling and mumbling. He rushed past the kitchen and the stairs back down to the base of the tower. She had been knocked unconscious. Rapunzel was gagged and chained while her mother was pulling her out an opening that looked like it might've been a door a long time ago.

Jack immediately reached for her binds but he couldn't touch them. His eyes darted to Gothel who didn't even notice his presence. The old woman was still dragging her along towards the waterfall. This was his only chance. He whispered the words that would make her hair glow. He was practically singing it as he quickly froze the chains on her hands and took off her gag. All the movement around Rapunzel caused her to wake up and mumble something incoherent.

Gothel's head whipped around at the bright glow behind her, "What on Earth?!" she stared at Rapunzel's glowing hair and frozen cuffs in surprise. "How is this happening!?" It was clear that she couldn't see him, but she pulled out a dagger, prepared to kill whoever this invisible enemy was.

Jack knocked his staff against the cuffs and they shattered on the grass. Gothel pointed the dagger at Rapunzel. "How are you doing that?! You're not even singing! What is going on?!" Gothel swung the dagger wildly at the air but it just went through Jack. "What is this magic?!"

He blasted ice at the woman, blowing her outside the tower and frozen on the ground. The lower half of her body was caged down by his ice. There was no way she could escape.

Rapunzel rushed to his side, and grabbed ahold of his arm. "Jack! Are you okay?"

He smiled. "Of course I am. Did you think I'd lose to some old witch? She couldn't even touch me." They both looked at the pitiful woman on the ground. He almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

"You never screamed for me." Jack accused of her.

"I was knocked out, but it didn't matter. I knew you'd protect me. I trust that you'll always be there when I need you." They looked at each other, their heads leaning in. To Jack, her green eyes were prettier than emeralds. She was so close that he could practically taste her lips.

"Rapunzel?!" The king and queen rushed to their daughter's side. Walking right through Jack, and causing the two to jump apart. "Are you alright?!"

"Of course, I told you I was protected. The winter spirits protect me."

The queen wrapped her daughter in her arms, "It's summer sweetheart, and we couldn't be sure. We were so scared. You had just rushed out and disappeared the moment you left the castle. We just couldn't lose you again." The king and queen were in tears to see her safe.

"Where is she? That woman who kidnapped you," The king demanded. Rapunzel pointed to where Jack had frozen her to the ground, but only a puddle remained. The morning sun had melted the ice.

It was then that they heard a disgusting gurgle. One of the guards was trying to scream; his hands were wrapped around the dagger that protruded from his throat. His hands were soaked in blood. The dagger disappeared and the man fell to the ground. Gothel stood behind him, a bloody dagger in her hand. She rushed forward, the blade pointed at the king.

The guards closed in around her, blocking her from Jack's view. The old woman seemed ready to throw everything on the line. She slashed at all the guards, who seemed at a loss for what to do. They did were unable to defend against her attempts at their throats. Guard after guard fell at her merciless attack. The river ran red with their blood.

Finally, Gothel had cleared the path she needed. She pushed the newest corpse onto an incoming guard and lunged for the king.

The queen jumped in the way, protecting her husband with her own body. Gothel stabbed the woman in the back before pulling the dagger back out, spraying blood in an arc all around her. Rapunzel pulled part of her bun loose from the braids and pressed it against the wound. The queen had landed against Rapunzel, who was holding her up now. She wasted no time in reciting the healing incantation. She would not let this woman die. This woman was her mother, those were her only thoughts.

Gothel's face was distorted with rage. She looked old now, possibly old enough to be Rapunzel's grandmother. "That magic is mine! You stole my flower from me first! If it weren't because of my flower, you'd already be dead. You _owe _me! YOU OWE ME!" Gothel was moving in for a second blow. She was determined to kill the queen before Rapunzel's magic took effect.

Rapunzel tried to drag the dying woman backwards but one of the guards was stepping on her hair. She couldn't run. Jack sent a blast of ice toward Gothel, knocking her to the side, but he was too late. Rapunzel had spun forward, shielding her mother. Jack's wind had knocked all three of them to the ground.

"NOOO!" Gothel, the king, and Jack all screamed at the same time as the bloodied dagger made contact.

Gothel had already sliced through Rapunzel's flesh, the tip of her dagger cutting through both her daughter's hair and back. Rapunzel let go of the queen but the healing incantation had worked. The wound on her abdomen faded away. Nothing remained of the fatal wound.

Rapunzel gripped what was left of the bun at the back of her head, but it didn't matter. She could see her hair turn brown right in front of her. Gothel was shrieking, pulling her hood over her head as her skin turned wrinkly and brown. She dropped the horrid dagger before collapsing on the ground. Her shrieks could be heard even as she turned to dust.

What was remaining of the useless guards rushed around Rapunzel, checking her injuries, but there were none to be found. Her parents were already examining her. Rapunzel's dress was torn where the knife connected, but there wasn't a trace of the wound. Her parents were not convinced however, and ushered her away from the forest despite her protests.

The group walked right past Jack, unbeknownst to his presence. He held onto a small glimmer of hope that she might still be able to hear him. "Rapunzel?" She didn't look in his direction. Her head was turning left and right. He knew she was looking for him and he tried again. He knew it was pointless by now. She couldn't see him, she couldn't even hear him.

**A/N: I'm just joking, there's one more chapter. Haha. If I ended it like this, people would be so pissed with me. **


	9. Promises

**A/N: Seriously this time…Last Chapter. Thanks to little miss BANANNA HEAD for always reviewing. You've kept me writing when I thought no one else was reading.**

By the time night came, Jack was back at his lake. The moon was full and bright. To Jack, it was almost like he was mocking him. "Why…Why did you let me meet her just to make this happen? She could hear me. She could see me. She could touch me, and you took all of that away in a matter of seconds! You gave me hope just to take it away with the blink of an eye…"

The Man in the Moon was as silent as ever. Jack had had enough. Ice shot out from Jack's body and blew in every direction, "ANSWER ME! You put me on this planet, and tell me my name. You haven't talked to me since! Why won't you answer me!? Why do you ignore me like everyone else!? It's not fair! You put me through this kind of crap and you can't even give me an answer? I love her!" Jack put his head in his hands. "I love her…"

~~36 hours ago~~

At the castle, the royal physician had spent the morning making sure Rapunzel was all right. They spent the afternoon checking her hair. Not an inch of blonde remained. It was obvious she was looking for him, but she wouldn't find him. Her head darted in all directions, but she wouldn't see him, he knew that.

In the evening, her parents had announced to the kingdom that their lost princess had returned. Her parents said there would be celebrations for weeks and a coronation the following morning. Everything was beautiful, but it was unfamiliar, and strange. Everyone and everything she had known was gone. Her hand touched the back of her head, where a small bit of her bun still remained.

Rapunzel walked to the full-length mirror in the room and took out the braids keeping her hair in place. Her hair dropped past her hips. She had bangs and split ends now. She stared at it, feeling anger for the first time in her life. She wasn't sure who she was angry at, but she wanted to hit someone with a frying pan.

"Jack..? If you're there, please answer me." She wrapped her arms around her legs, huddling herself together, "Please…"

Jack had flown back to the castle. He was now watching her from the window. He wanted to answer her, more than anything in the world, but he knew that she wouldn't be able to hear him. There was no point. He wasn't even sure why he was staying by her side. He just couldn't bring himself to leave her. He held a hand to her face, but she couldn't feel it, "What do I have to do for you to hear me…? Just tell me…Please just tell me and I will do it…"

Rapunzel looked down at Pascal, her eyes sad. "I guess he's not here…" Pascal pulled on her dress and pointed in his direction but she only saw air. "Where is he…?"

Jack felt like he'd been punched in the chest. He couldn't stand seeing her like that. He wanted to tell her that he was still there, watching over her. He waved his staff and created a pile of snow on her balcony. She could see it in the reflection of her mirror.

She immediately ran onto the balcony and called into the sea. "Jack?!"

He was right in front of her, but she looked right past him. He used his index finger and wrote her a message in the snow.

_I love you. _

Tears formed in Rapunzel's eyes. She hadn't felt like crying up until that point, but the words got to her. The tears slid down her face. "I love you too."

He materialized before his eyes. He was kneeling down next to his message. "Jack…" She tackled him to the ground. The tears were streaming down her face and landing on his cloak. She looked down at him, memorizing all his features, "I can see you again!"

"That's because you're crying. Your tears are magic. Everything about you is magic. That's probably why you could see my message at all."

Rapunzel looked over at the ruined message. "Jack, I love you."

He laughed, "Do you even know what love is? You thought you loved your mother for 16 years."

Rapunzel laughed too, even though it seemed kind of morbid. "I guess that's true. But how do you know what love is?"

He held her closer, "I've seen it. In you. I've seen everything in you. You're beautiful. The softness in your voice, it guides me. It shows me the way to go." He took a deep breath before whispering, "When we kiss, it moves me to my soul."

She pushed herself up a little, "We've never kissed before."

He moved her bangs away from her face, "Then kiss me." He put his hands on her back of her neck and guided her back down to his lips. They met gently, confused and possibly even afraid. He could feel the warmth of her breath, the softness of her lips. It sent shivers down his spine.

Rapunzel wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, kissing him a bit harder. She pressed herself as close to him as possible. More tears streamed down her face and onto his fingers. He pulled her back a little so he could kiss at her tears. "And now we have."

"Hehe. Doesn't that taste awful?"

He stood up, carrying her with him. "No. Not really. Do you remember that night I gave you Pascal? You were crying. Your tears were the reason I could touch you. They're the reason I can touch you right now."

"When I stop, will you disappear again?" Her question caused him to pause for just a second, but he continued walking. "Maybe."

Jack put Rapunzel on the bed and knelt down beside her. The didn't speak for several minutes. Rapunzel broke the silence, "You don't have to lie to me."

"I'm not lying. There's a small chance you might still be able to see me."

"If I cry often, then I'll be able to see you all the time. We can be together."

Rapunzel's question bothered him. It was true. If she cried, then they could be together, but he couldn't, didn't want to see it happen. "I can't let you do that."

"What? Why not?"

Jack held her hand in his. "Do you honestly think I could stand seeing you cry forever? I don't want to make you cry, Rapunzel. I don't want to see you cry."

"And I don't want to lose you." She held his hand with both of hers.

"You won't have to. I'll always watch over you. I'll always be with you."

Rapunzel shook her head, "It's not the same. Please, please don't leave me. Jack-"

"Shh…" He took some of the snow off her floor and made a tiny lantern. On the front, he drew a crude snowflake. He blew ice over it, filling it with his magic. "When you start to lose faith in me, just look at this lantern and remember, I'll always love you. No matter how much time passes. Believe in me. Someday, I'll come back to you. I promise I'll come back to you."

"No!" She had so much force in her words that she even surprised herself. "You can't just say that! You can't just leave me here! Jack…" She pulled his cloak to her chest and kissed him with as much strength as she had, which wasn't very much. He returned the kiss, grabbing her hair and pulling her closer to him. He didn't want the moment to end, but he knew he had to leave, before her tears dried up.

He pulled away abruptly, catching her off-guard. He ran to his staff before he could change his mind and flew out of the window. He landed on the roof of her room, out of sight. She ran after him, calling out his name.

"Don't leave me! You can't leave me here!"

Jack watched her fall to her knees. Her hands held onto the bars of her balcony. "Please…Please…You promised me you would be with me when I lived my life…"

Rapunzel smashed her fists against the floor repeatedly, "You lied to me…You lied to me..."

**A/N: And that's it. Goodnight folks. I'll see you at my next Frozen Sun fic.**

**Update: Sequel is up. Alone Again is being updated slowly. **


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